Changes to communications with superintendents

Superintendents:

This week we are transitioning to a weekly Commissioner’s Update that will replace the existing Administrative and Informational Letters. The first Commissioner’s Update is planned to go out by email this Thursday morning.

This new system for communicating with the field is in response to considerable feedback we have received in the past year or so that you would like fewer communications, you want clearer and more concise writing, and you would like greater predictability about when you will receive communications. We have taken into account feedback from a survey many of you participated in a year ago, and from many of your comments to the Commissioner while on his listening tour.

In short:

You will receive a weekly Commissioner’s Update on Thursday mornings by email. This will include the title, summary, and a link to all Administrative Letters for the week. You will no longer receive Administrative Letters throughout the week.

The Commissioner’s Update will also include “dispatches” – These will include everything from notice about an upcoming workshop of interest to an article about the great work in interventions happening at a school (and maybe even written by the principal of that school). Most items that would have been Informational Letters will now be dispatches, as well as a number of additional items.

The full versions of all items in the Commissioner’s Update will be housed in our new Newsroom, which is fully searchable. Although we will only send the Update once a week, items will be posted frequently in the Newsroom. So, a letter or update might be posted in the Newsroom on Tuesday, and included in the weekly Commissioner’s Update on Thursday.

For a sneak peak of the Newsroom, visit <http://mainedoenews.net> The Newsroom is still a prototype – watch in the coming days for tweaks and improvements, including the addition of category tags that will make all items searchable in multiple ways.

We’ll send several reminders, using both the old system and the new one, to make sure that we have not left anyone off the new system and that it’s working for everyone. We will be asking for feedback throughout, and will have more news in the coming weeks about changes planned to the Maine DOE website.

Thanks for your patience during the transition, and feel free to contact me with questions or suggestions.